Worms

I had always thought that the JA was just trying to sell pesticide when they required us to spray for rice worms. I had read that the japonica varieties of rice, the native species, were naturally resistent to the rice worm but since we all grow some modern variation of the original rice, not true hybrids but somehow manipulated species, we need to spray. Anyway, in all these years, I have never actually seen a worm. This year, due to the relentless heat, there is actually a farmer's alert posted warning of rice worm invasion. You can see the scrappy looking leaves in the pictures. We sprayed and I don't see worms now, but before we sprayed, we ran a stick over the plants and it came up with dozens of green worms, like inchworms. Gross.

You can see the rice grains just beginning to develop. This is a critical time for the rice.